Structure Tone’s Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Project Wins People’s Choice Award from IFMA Boston
The Boston chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has named Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s new Boston headquarters its People’s Choice Award winner in its 2017 Awards of Excellence. The award recognizes the project that receives the most votes from the Boston A/E/C community during one week in April. This year more than 3,000 people voted.
Built by Structure Tone and designed by Visnick & Caulfield, the new headquarters not only brought the company to a new part of town, but also marked an opportunity to revive their working environment and employees’ connection to the company’s venerable history and vision for the future. The new space accomplishes those goals by transforming five floors and 195,000 square feet into a workplace that promotes connection and collaboration and inspires employees with reminders of the company’s mission of “changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners.”
Perhaps the most important feature of the new office is the sophisticated branding and culture program throughout the space. With timelines of the company’s history, inspirational terms from the company’s mission, spaces labeled with imagery, authors and titles of the company’s collection, and books galore, employees are surrounded by a living history of the company and a daily reminder of the words they live by. As the HMH director of real estate put it, “It was not just a refresh of the space but a refresh of our culture and an opportunity for us all to get excited about who we are again.”
Established in 1980, IFMA is a non-profit, incorporated association dedicated to serving the facility management profession. Their annual Awards of Excellence are presented each May.
